Author: Aren Carpenter
Publisher: Medium
Publication Year: 2020
Summary: The following article discusses how data protection and usage protections for users and consumers have been a hot topic in recent years, and there are many examples of issues that have arisen for certain companies. While data collection can be used for good, there are still challenges. For example, Facebook collected user data without their consent in order to try and identify potentially suicidal users and report them to law enforcement for their safety. However, some may feel this is a violation of their privacy, although HIPPA says since Facebook is not a medical organization, they do not fall under their jurisdiction. The author gives 5 concepts that are useful in ensuring ethical data practices: consent (give explicit consent from users to collect data); transparency (make sure you can explain how your models and algorithms work when using data collected from your users); accountability (ensure you evaluate potential harm of the data collection methods you are using); anonymity (ensure users’ data is protected from a privacy standpoint at every iteration of the data collection and usage process); and bias (take the time to consider potential areas of bias in your data collection and how the outcomes you may produce via the data may be swayed because of that).